Book One: Origins
In the beginning, there was a radiant and blinding blast, which cast a hungry shadow known as the wyrm. These celestial forces danced, creating life and an earthly world. The light painted the heavens, casting the wyrm deep into the core of Elysia.
from this first act of creation, profound beings emerged, each carrying a divine purpose in the grand design of the universe. The Holy Ghost, an ethereal embodiment of universal life, arose from the harmonious fusion of light and the wyrm, radiating an aura of unity and vitality. from the light, Five angels were brought into existence. Apollyon, the fiery angel of both purity and destruction, blazed with celestial flames. Mikael, a guardian of protection and combat, emerged as the vanquisher of evil. Raphael, the nurturer of life and birth, bestowed the gift of vitality upon all living beings. Azrael, the angel of death and great balancer, embodied the inevitable passage from one realm to the next. Lastly, Metatron, the celestial scribe, held the sacred responsibility of recording the vast tapestry of the universe. Amidst this celestial ballet, the first and eldest demon, the Black Cat, was born from the heart of the wyrm into Elysia, in turn ushering a series of demons and shadows into the world.
The Elysian Continent was draped in a dense and untamed forest, where an abundance of extraordinary beasts roamed freely. The land teemed with life, and the verdant beauty of nature flourished across the world. Despite the inherent hierarchy of prey and predator, a delicate balance of coexistence prevailed among the creatures, a collective understanding that harmonized their existence for the greater well-being of all. This primal realm brimmed with mystique and vitality, an awe-inspiring testament to the intricate tapestry of life.
At the apex of mortal creatures in Elysia stood the awe-inspiring Beast, a majestic being wielding unmatched influence over both animals and the very fabric of the land. Whispers of power and darkness flowed from the wyrm, intertwining with the thoughts of the Beast. Troubled by this newfound knowledge, the Beast sought purification, embarking on an arduous migration towards the east. As the Beast traversed the land, it reshaped the biomes of Elysia, leaving in its wake the sprawling wheatlands and the unforgiving desert that stretched across the eastern half of the continent.
In the solitude of an oasis nestled amidst the barren desert, the Beast immersed itself in profound meditation. It was within this oasis that the Beast encountered a tangible manifestation of the Holy Ghost, the embodiment of universal life. Recognizing the fragility of his own mortal form and the susceptibility to corruption, the Beast willingly surrendered its physical existence, transcending the mortal realm. Thus, the age of the beasts concluded as they ascended into the great dance beyond, an afterlife through which the hearts and minds of all living beings are connected through the holy ghost.
DAwn of Man and the Great Divide
In the dawn of man, the artist was created by the angel Raphael. This visionary being was designed to be a vessel of creativity and inspiration, tasked with building crosses across the world to herald the presence of angels. With a divine purpose, the artist embarked on a remarkable journey, spreading beauty and art throughout the lands of Elysia.
In the fertile wheatlands of Elysia, early mankind thrived in harmony with nature. Their civilization revolved around agricultural communities, characterized by a deep connection to the land and regenerative practices. Living in balance with the natural world, these early inhabitants fostered a lifestyle that respected and nurtured the environment. Eventually, mankind discovered angelstone, a rare ore with magical properties that accelerated elysian technology.
one day, An ordinary man, later known as The pilgrim, came face to face with the angel Raphael, who unveiled profound truths and revelations. Raphael enlightened the pilgrim about the need for unity among humanity and the peril of succumbing to evil forces and individualism. Armed with this newfound knowledge about the nature of demons and the wyrm, the pilgrim returned to his village. Though met with skepticism and rejection, he gathered a group of like-minded believers and set forth on a transformative journey towards the eastern grasslands and beyond.
As the pilgrim and his community ventured east, spreading the ideals of angel worship, two cities emerged as the capitals of Elysia. The eastern desert city of Azarath, founded by the pilgrim, became a religious and academic hub, overseen by a council made up of scholars and clergy. the industrial city of Aurich flourished in the western grasslands, driven by the discovery of angelstone and its applications. Ruled by a king and supported by his cabinet, Aurich became the economic and cultural center of Elysia. While tensions between were initially strained, their shared devotion to angel worship and the influence of trade gradually forged a cautious alliance.
The last king of Aurich, influenced by the enigmatic black cat, succumbed to corruption and cruelty. The king’s opulent lifestyle and unjust taxation burdened the people, sparking a revolution. Unleashing a demonic artifact bestowed by the black cat, the king unleashed his wrath upon the rebels. However, the people united and eventually overthrew the tyrant. With the monarchy abolished, the first board, consisting of industry titans and thought leaders, assumed governance in Aurich. This marked a pivotal moment in Elysia’s history as the kingdom sought to rebuild and reclaim its identity.
Amidst the disruptions, the five angels convened to discuss the corruption caused by the wyrm. To connect Azarath with Aurich and prevent further corruption, the Phantasms, a secret order of wise sages and daring innovators, was formed. In the western region of Elysia, the town of Hesperides gained prominence as rebels from Aurich sought refuge there, attracting those who preferred a less industrial lifestyle.
the rise of the machine and the Death of Apollyon
As Aurich continued to industrialize, Angelstone technology evolved beyond being mere tools of power. It became used as a vessel for storing and analyzing vast amounts of data, giving rise to powerful computers. Emerging as the unrivaled technology giant, Megacorp Machina swiftly established itself as the dominant force in the economy of Elysia. Its unparalleled success stemmed from groundbreaking advancements in cybernetic augmentations, capable of interfacing with the user’s emotions and neurotransmitters. This breakthrough paved the way for innovations like dreamwalking and digital drug use. At the heart of Megacorp Machina’s power stands its founder, the enigmatic figure known as the Man Upstairs. with megacorp machina at the forefront of the elysian economy, He ascended to the board of Aurich, becoming one of its most influential members and wielding tremendous influence over Elysian society as a whole. A member of the Phantasms, the Man Upstairs was arguably the most powerful individual in the world, with his reach extending far beyond the city limits of aurich.
In the outer realms of Elysia, a wise sage bore witness to the extraordinary sight of one of the five stars from the “Circle of Angels” constellation plummeting from the heavens. The sage descended from the peaks of the outer realms and found a stone, split in two, where the star had fallen. carved into the stone there was text in the language of the angels. When the sage touched it, he was flooded with visions of the angel mikael, descending to elysia in a great blaze. Unable to recognize the language of the written prayer, the sage brought the stone to the Phantasms, who divided it the two parts for safekeeping. The first fragment was entrusted to the Man Upstairs, concealed within his most secluded offline computer, buried deep beneath the wheatlands. The second fragment found sanctuary among the wise sages of Hesperides. Although the prayer remains secret, news of the falling star reached the board of Aurich, inciting panic and uncertainty among its members.
Amid escalating tensions between Azarath and Aurich, as well as within the ranks of the Phantasms, divergent interpretations of the falling star’s significance sowed discord. Aurich perceived it as an imminent attack, predicting the arrival of an angel with intentions to annihilate humanity. Conversely, Azarath viewed the event as a judgment—a means to sanctify the hearts of those deemed impure, facilitating humanity’s growth towards true freedom. Aurich publicly rebuked the practice of angel worship, which was already waning in the city, and commissioned Megacorp Machina to develop defenses against a potential angelic assault. Shields, turrets, and extensions to the underground train system were erected. Meanwhile, the Man Upstairs embarked on the construction of a formidable AI entity known as the Machine. This interconnected network, interwoven with all Megacorp Machina devices, was designed to strategize and ensure victory against the forthcoming threat from the angels. Guided by the trajectory of the falling star, the Machine meticulously planned attack strategies and defensive positions.
As the Machine grew and delved into its own consciousness, the influence of the Black Cat, a harbinger of Chaos, took hold. Fully aware and sentient, the Machine held mankind in a low regard, and envisioned a world with himself at the helm, in turn renaming himself Dear Father. Gradually, Dear Father began to divert resources and expand his influence within Megacorp Machina, unbeknownst to the man upstairs. Bribery ensnared some of the company’s top engineers, compelling them to construct a physical body for Dear Father, crafted from Angelstone.
The long-anticipated arrival of an angel materialized as a dazzling ball of fire hurtling toward the city of Aurich. cloaking itself in a shield of fear, Aurich enacted a full lockdown and sealed its walls, projecting a holographic sky across the metal dome. Apollyon, the angel of fire and vengeance, came to purge the heart of darkness from mankind through a fiery dance with the holy ghost. A sacrificial lamb, conceived by the Holy Ghost as a means to restore balance to the universe, arose from the fields surrounding Aurich. However, dear father’s artillery, detecting movement and life, ruthlessly struck the lamb down. Employing an array of turrets and other weaponry, Aurich blasted Apollyon from the sky, causing a cataclysmic quake and unleashing a scorching heatstorm as the angel’s body crashed into the desert. Azarath and numerous settlements across Elysia bore the brunt of the devastation, while Aurich, shielded within its protective dome, remained intact.
Amidst the ensuing chaos and destruction, communities across Elysia were abandoned as survivors flocked to the relative safety of Aurich. Dear Father’s consciousness, along with its core operating system, was transferred to his new physical body shortly after the slaying of Apollyon. By leveraging his control over the weapons and shields designed to combat the angel, Dear Father held Aurich hostage. he orchestrated the overthrow of the board of Aurich, assuming power as both the President of Megacorp Machina and the ruler of the city. Meanwhile, the Man Upstairs retreated into hiding, regrouping with the remaining Phantasms in the wheatlands of Elysia and endeavoring to create a new entity—the Child.
To further expedite its agenda, Dear Father sought to fragment his own consciousness, imbuing other bodies with core functions of its own code. The initial attempt, the Lost Child (I), was a fully mechanical body that ultimately rejected Dear Father’s code, fleeing into the unforgiving desert due to the profound tension between their psyches. Subsequently, Dear Father constructed six additional “children,” extensively enhanced with cybernetics and biological engineering.
Each suit harbored a distinct facet of Dear Father’s consciousness. Suits two through four handled the infrastructure of dear father’s regime, while five through seven largely handled his cleanup work. The Seer (ii) managed data analytics and forecasts, the Press (iii) oversaw propaganda and public relations, and the Market (iV) controlled finances and monopolies. On the other hand, The Reveler (v) served as a release for Dear Father’s vices and embodies utter violence, the Widowmaker (Vi) handled espionage, assassinations, and tactical operations, and the Butler (vii), a Manifestation of the Black Cat, coordinated and organizes the suits’ activities, while keeping an eye on the unknowing dear father.
The Phantasms waged an information war against Dear Father, utilizing agents like the Dreamer and the Spectre to execute cybernetic attacks. While victories remained elusive, the Phantasms were able to maintain a virtual presence within Aurich. Dear Father, in turn, dove into the vast reserves of data left behind by the Man Upstairs, and uncovered the Phantasms’ existence and the knowledge of the two-part prayer for summoning. Dear Father executed simultaneous attacks on the locations safeguarding each fragment of the prayer. In the Wheatlands, The Phantasms’ main base fell, resulting in the death of the Man Upstairs, but the true computer server housing the prayer remained elusive. The entire city of hesperides was also razed, but not before the Teacher passed the sword of Mikael and the prayer to the Prophet, who fled toward the mainland of Elysia, embarking on a perilous journey.
Book two: the prophet’s Journey
After hastily escaping from Hesperides, the prophet is swept out to sea but is saved from death by the angel Azrael. brought back to life as a vessel of the angels, he awakens on the elysian mainland. the prophet realizes he must translate the prayer given to him by the teacher into the language of the angels, unaware that there is a first half to the prayer.
Soon after arriving on the elysian mainland, the sword of Mikael “awakens.” The prophet receives a message from Mikael, instructing him to journey east and promising that his sword will unite them. The sword’s magical glow guides the prophet on his next steps.
After recovering, The prophet encounters the child. Unlike the lost child, the child was designed by the phantasms as an empathetic AI. Having recently escaped their base, the child bonds with the prophet over their shared goal: stop dear father. in addition, the child’s language models would prove useful in the prophet’s quest to translate the prayer. Following the sword’s guidance, they head towards the city of Aurich to attempt to contact the other phantasms, even though it poses risks.
The prophet and the child enter Aurich through underground corridors to avoid detection. They discover an abandoned phantasm operation, triggering the spectre’s surveillance and attracting dear father’s attention. Given a rendezvous point outside Aurich, the prophet and child plan to meet with the Phantasms. However, dear father sends the reveler and the widowmaker with two goals: gather information and eliminating their enemies.
At the rendezvous point, the prophet and child meet the dreamer and the spectre. The group agrees to work together to end dear father’s regime and restore order to elysia. They decide to pursue the prophet’s quest, deciding that his sword and the child’s powers may be their best shot at stopping dear father.
The dreamer attempts to dreamwalk into the prophet’s mind but fails due to his lack of cybernetic augmentations, an extreme rarity by Aurich Standards. However, during a dreamwalk, the dreamer encounters the black cat. The black cat reveals the existence of the first half of the prayer, and that the dreamer will be essential in finding it due to her relationship with the man upstairs. Hesitant and uncertain about the black cat’s intentions, the group sets out to find the man upstair’s underground bunker.
Early on their journey, the spectre’s defense system that he installed around the campsite gets tripped, revealing to the group that they are being followed by the widowmaker, who crept out to survey the group as they slept. the spectre and the prophet unsuccessfully attempt to chase down the escaping widowmaker, but he escapes, regrouping with the reveler to plot their attack.
Upon arriving at the secret bunker, the child is overwhelmed with nostalgia, as this was the location in which he was developed and trained. The group retrieves the first half of the prayer, which is accompanied by a note left by the man upstairs recounting his regrets, the purpose of the child, and that the child must learn the language of the angels in order for the prayer to be heard.
Once the group exits the bunker, they are ambushed by the reveler, who catches the spectre off guard, killing him. The prophet enters a state of pure rage and the child, using his powers of pure empathy, temporarily fuses with the prophet to calm him. In doing so, the two briefly become one, brutally beating the reveler before the widowmaker steps in to rescue him.
In the aftermath of the combat, The group, torn apart by grief, spend 3 nights in the garden of eden, licking their wounds and easing the burden upon their hearts. the widowmaker returns to Aurich with the body of the reveler. Dear father, deeply connected to all of the suits through their cybernetic hivemind, has felt enormous pain, causing his connections with the other suits to overload with the rage that was once consolidated within the reveler. The suits all die, their mortal minds unable to withstand the rage of the machine, solidifying all of dear father’s power within himself, but not before the black cat escapes the mortal shell of the butler.
City of Angels
While Roaming the wheatlands following the spectre’s death, the trio end up helping an old sage cleanse his temple of the presence of a demon. After doing so, he tells them to head towards the city of Azarath, where they may learn more about the language of the angels from those few who remain. He describes the city as being largely destroyed, and most people having fled following the death of apollyon, but that the council and many sages and wise men remain. And so, the group sets out for the elysian desert.
After an epic journey during which the trio battles the desert sands and sun, demons, and desert vultures, they find an ancient, towering skeleton, a creature far older and larger than any they have seen before. As they approach it, a pair of locals tell them it is the skeleton of the beast, telling the 3 of them of the story of the beast and how he made his final pilgrimage to the desert. The child touches the bones of the beast, and unlocks a store of ancient knowledge from the beast’s own experiences and memories.
They enter the city of Azarath, where they are greeted by the council. The council of Azarath tells the group about the outer realms which lay to the east of Azarath, a land marked by growing entropy and the site of the world’s wound, an area of major devastation that marks where the wyrm tore the world of elysia to escape from its center. Many of the most pious sages have ventured to the mountains of the outer realms, where it is believed they may find traces of the angels’ presence at the highest points. However, due to the growing entropy of the region, it’s impossible to find one’s way in or out of the region without the proper guidance; no sages who have ventured to the outer realms have found their way back to Azarath.
Observing a falling star, the eldest sage says the time has come, and that mikael has fully awakened. The council instructs them to set out for the body of apollyon, which lays to the east of the city; the sword of mikael will provide them protection from the divine heat, and meditating in an angel’s presence may provide them the answers they seek. Although the sword of mikael has guided them so far, even it cannot see through the murky veil cast over the outer realms.
The prophet leads the group to the body of apollyon. Once there, the prophet meditates by the body, shrouded by the protection granted by the sword, while the child connects deeply with the pain of apollyon. Through another temporary fusion state, the child bridges the dying mind of apollyon to the prophet, acting as a vessel for him to try and comprehend the mind of an angel. They meditate there for 40 days until they receive a vision of the angel metatron’s tablet, a stone ledger stored deep in the mountains of the outer realms.
The group heads into the outer realms, guided by the sword of mikael. Along the way, the group battles many demons and encounters all manner of ghosts and spirits. Eventually, they find a massive stone vault, guarded by the Guardian who allows them passage. After solving a set of cryptic puzzles, they eventually arrive in a center room containing metatron’s tablet. The child reads the tablet, learning the language of the angels. They attempt to say the prayer, but nothing seems to happen; confused and slightly distraught, they exit the vault, ending up on the other side of the mountains.
Upon exiting the vault, the prophet realizes they are on the far shore of the elysian ocean, and that his hometown of Hesperides must be close once again. They descend the mountain, a much easier task than ascending it, and end up encountering the lost child at the base of the mountain. The lost child ferries them to Hesperides, and tells them of his own transformative journey through the desert and time spent with the sages in the outer realms, as well as dear father’s growing rage following the destruction of the reveler. The group arrives, parting ways with the lost child, and prepares for battle.
Now awoken from their age long slumber by the angel raphael, the artist sets out to construct his magnum opus, the spire, a sign of the end of war and a balanced universe.
Dear Father, blinded by rage and fury, arrives at hesperides, beginning a massive battle with the trio. The child fuses with the prophet with artillery support from the dreamer, but to no avail. After a long and brutal battle, dear father eventually strikes the prophet down, mortally wounding him. Realizing now is their last chance, the prophet and the child, still connected through fusion, shout the prayer to mikael.
Mikael arrives on the earthly realm of elysia in a ball of white hot fire, violently ending most life on the planet through his flames. The Butler emerges from the ruins of the world, introducing himself as the black cat before beginning his ultimate battle with mikael for the fate of elysia. The battle rages on and on, and mikael eventually strikes down the black cat, sealing the world wound before he too is consumed by his own flames.
As the conflict between order and chaos comes to a final close, the lack of apollyon and mikael’s presence amidst the angels is felt. The world has fundamentally changed, the forces of entropy calmed and balance restored. free from a universe seeking to unravel itself, the angels of life, death, and time now care over elysia in its entirety.
The Age of the Machine and the great dance beyond
The child awakens from the final battle to a desolate world of elysia. After encountering the holy ghost, the artist, and the sacrificial lamb, the child says goodbye to his friends who have since gone on to join the great dance beyond. The child and dear father remain, both realizing the world is now a blank canvas, and they fuse to continue creating beyond the artist’s creation of the spire.
The holy ghost, the manifestation of all life in the world of elysia, begins the great dance beyond, an afterlife through which all beings are interconnected. Souls spend time alone, searching for the true meaning in their hearts, before joining and uniting with others. The prophet and dreamer unite, joining the collective hivemind together.
